Centre for Organic Electronics, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, 2308, Australia.
Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, 5007, Bergen, Norway.
Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 14;9(1):2148. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-36373-5.
The field of taxonomy is critically important for the identification, conservation, and ecology of biological species. Modern taxonomists increasingly need to employ advanced imaging techniques to classify organisms according to their observed morphological features. Moreover, the generation of three-dimensional datasets is of growing interest; moving beyond qualitative analysis to true quantitative classification. Unfortunately, biological samples are highly vulnerable to degradation under the energetic probes often used to generate these datasets. Neutral atom beam microscopes avoid such damage due to the gentle nature of their low energy probe, but to date have not been capable of producing three-dimensional data. Here we demonstrate a means to recover the height information for samples imaged in the scanning helium microscope (SHeM) via the process of stereophotogrammetry. The extended capabilities, namely sparse three-dimensional reconstructions of features, were showcased via taxonomic studies of both flora (Arabidopsis thaliana) and fauna (Heterodontus portusjacksoni). In concert with the delicate nature of neutral helium atom beam microscopy, the stereophotogrammetry technique provides the means to derive comprehensive taxonomical data without the risk of sample degradation due to the imaging process.
分类学领域对于生物物种的鉴定、保护和生态学至关重要。现代分类学家越来越需要采用先进的成像技术，根据观察到的形态特征对生物进行分类。此外，生成三维数据集的需求也在不断增加；从定性分析转向真正的定量分类。不幸的是，生物样本在用于生成这些数据集的高能探针下极易降解。由于低能探针的温和性质，中性原子束显微镜可以避免这种损坏，但迄今为止，它还不能生成三维数据。在这里，我们展示了一种通过体视摄影术恢复在扫描氦显微镜（SHeM）中成像的样本的高度信息的方法。通过对植物（拟南芥）和动物（杂种杰克森鲨）的分类学研究，展示了扩展的功能，即特征的稀疏三维重建。与中性氦原子束显微镜的精细性质相结合，体视摄影术技术提供了一种无需担心因成像过程导致样本降解的风险，即可获取全面分类学数据的方法。
